OPA

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the appointment of Loren J, Farmer, 35, Blackfeet Indian, to be Superintendent of the Yankton Agency, the Bureau of Indian Affairs office that serves the Yankton Sioux Indian Tribe of South Dakota. His appointment was effective March 31.

Farmer replaces Charles James who transferred to the Aberdeen, South Dakota, Area Office of the Bureau.

Farmer assumes the new post after having served as Administrative Manager of the Cheyenne River Agency, which serves the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

Farmer was graduated from Bremerton, Washington, High School in 1956 and from Haskell Institute, now Haskell Indian Junior College, Lawrence, Kansas, in 1959. He began his Bureau of Indian Affairs career at Western Washington Agency, Everett, Washington, the following year.

He became an Administrative Assistant and a management trainee with the Bureau in 1961, working in the Portland, Oregon, Area Office. He moved, then, into a job as Plant Management Assistant and became an Administrative Officer with the Neah Bay Job Corps Center, Neah Bay, Washington. He has also been an accounting technician and a supervisory accounting technician. He became Administrative Manager at Cheyenne River Agency, Eagle Butte, South Dakota, in 1971.

Farmer has been vice president and president of the Portland American Indian Center, Portland, Ore. He has also been sports chairman of the Interior Associates of the Northwest (Portland).

Farmer's wife, Rochelle, is a Cheyenne River Sioux Indian. They have six children.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the appointment of Elmer F. Compton, 53, Rosebud Sioux tribal member and former officer and economic development officer of the Rosebud Agency, Bureau of He has been acting in that Indian Affairs, to the post of Superintendent. He has been acting in that capacity since October 1972.

Compton studied political science for two years at the University of South Dakota and completed a third year at the University of Wyoming before going into military service. He served in the United States Army from 1942 to 1946, and completed the Army Specialized Training Program, language and foreign area, which enable him to speak, write and read the Sioux language.

From 1946 to 1954 he held various posts in the town of St. Francis, South Dakota, such as town clerk and member of the board of trustees. He was secretary of the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council and member of the council from 1950 to 1952.

In 1956 he became fiscal clerk, Rosebud Sioux Tribal Land Enterprise and the following year joined the Bureau as Real Property clerk.

He then became law clerk and real property assistant, next realty specialist and realty officer, in 1972, economic development officer.

Compton is a licensed real estate broker of the State of South Dakota and has been since 1963. He is also a member of the Central South Dakota Board of Realtors, South Dakota Association of Realtors, National Association of Realtors; National Association of Real Estate Boards, and the South Dakota Chapter, National Institute of Farm and Land Brokers.

He is married to Vera, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe also, and they have five children.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson announced today the appointment of Daniel D. McDonald, 46, to be Director of Tribal Resources Development, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington, D.C. His post is the first of an anticipated five top jobs within the Bureau to be filled.

"As Director of Tribal Resources, Mr. McDonald will head the Central Office functions related to the Bureau's programs in assisting Indians in business entrepreneurship, in creating job opportunities on reservations, in conducting manpower training programs, in finding employment on or off reservations, in obtaining credit and financing (including assistance in establishing and operating credit and financing institutions), and in providing technical assistance to tribes in road construction and maintenance," Thompson said.

McDonald, is a Nez Perce/Flathead Indian who grew up on the Flathead Reservation, Mont. and is the 9th of 13 children. Following service in the U.S. Marine Corps, during World War II, he graduated from the University of Montana and later did graduate work at George Washington University.

"McDonald brings to the job a unique background of first hand knowledge of the Indian people he will serve, their resources and their potential. He also has the experience and the education to help these people make maximum use of their resources," said Thompson.

McDonald will move to the post from his present job as Director of Inter-governmental Relations, National Council on Indian Opportunity, in the Office of the Vice President, where he has worked since May, 1970.

In his National Council on Indian Opportunity position, McDonald encouraged full use of all Federal programs to benefit the Indian population. He also appraised their impact and progress and helped to develop ways to improve such programs.

Earlier, as an Industrial Development Specialist for BIA at the Navajo Area Office (1967-1970) McDonald received a superior performance award for his assistance in the establishment of 11 new industries on the Navajo Reservation; promoting the expansion of the embryonic Fairchild Semi-conductor Division into a giant operation employing more than 1,000 Navajo tribal members -- the largest single employer of Indians in the United States; establishment of the General Dynamics plant at Fort Defiance, Ariz. , and establishment of the Fed-Mart Store, first supermarket on the Navajo Reservation, and the Window Rock Motor Inn, both at Window Rock. He was an Industrial Development Specialist for BIA’s Gallup, N.M. Area Office from 1963 to 1967.

He began his Bureau of Indian Affairs career in 1956 as relocation assistant on the Fort Belknap Reservation at Harlem, Mont.

He is married to the former Gloria Gardipe of the Flathead Reservation and resides with his family in Rockville, Maryland. They are the parents of three sons and one daughter.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today called passage of the Indian Financing Act of 1974 "a giant step toward viable Indian reservation communities that will be a credit to this Nation." The law, signed by President Richard M. Nixon April 12:

1. Consolidates existing Indian revolving loan funds already administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and authorizes the appropriation of an additional $50,000,000 for the consolidated fund from which direct Federal loans will be made to Indian organizations and individuals.

2. Creates a new Indian Loan Guaranty and Insurance Fund under which up to $200 million in loans made by private lenders to Indian tribes or tribal members can be guaranteed or insured for up to 90 percent of the unpaid principal and interest due.

3. Provides for interest subsidies to reduce the cost of borrowing from private lenders under the Loan Guarantee and Insurance Fund.

4. Establishes the Indian Business Development Program which will stimulate and increase Indian entrepreneurship and employment by providing equity capital through non-reimbursable grants to Indians and Indian tribes to establish and expand profit making Indian-owned economic enterprises benefiting Indian reservations and communities. The Act authorizes appropriations of up to $10 million for Indian Business Development Program grants for each of the next three fiscal years.

5. Provides for management and technical assistance to be given to each loan or grant applicant in the development of their economic enterprise.

Said Thompson, as he explained the benefits of this new legislation: "Indian credit and capital resources needed in order that Indians can develop their own resources and begin and operate their own small businesses has been completely inadequate. As a result, Indians have been dependent upon private. non-Indian lenders. However. these sources of credit often have categorized Indians as poor credit risks for reasons often beyond the Indians control. When private credit has been available to Indians, it was often at interest rates so high as to make the loan prohibitive.

"The Indian Loan Guaranty and Insurance Fund alone could generate approximately $200,000,000 in new credit for Indians and Indian tribes. Other aspects of the law will multiply available credit in a similar way. I am confident this will do a great deal to break the poverty syndrome prevalent to many American Indian communities."

Thompson pointed out that President Nixon, in his Message to the Congress on Indians delivered early in his Administration, said:

“The first Americans – the Indians – are the most deprived and isolated minority group in our Nation. On virtually every scale of measurement – employment, income, education, health – the condition of the Indian people ranks at the bottom.”

This bank, the American Indian National Bank, is a product of the spirit and vision of the Indian people. It is a symbol of Indian self-determination. More important, however, it is a working symbol that will bring new prosperity to our Indians, and a full opportunity for equal economic footing with the rest of the Nation.

Like dedicating a new village school, or laying the cornerstone for a new tribal business, this ceremony --formally transferring the charter for the Indian bank --brings a large measure of the promise of the future, into the present. It means not only economic opportunity tomorrow --but economic opportunity today.

Unique among our country's financial institutions, the bank is wholly Indian owned, and Indian operated. It will service the needs and aspirations not just of a single locality, or a single tribe, but an entire people --the Indian people.

The concept that led to the creation of the Indian bank took form in the early 60's, when Indian leaders, both in and out of government, began to focus on ways to bring the Indian community on equal economic footing with the rest of the Nation.

These men anticipated the need for a broad financial structure that would wed Indian leadership with effective business enterprise. They en­visioned an institution with the financial services, counseling, and plan­ning ability necessary to free the American Indian from the isolation of an economic island that meant higher unemployment, inadequate housing, and a smaller share of economic independence.

The task that led the chartering of this bank was formidable, requiring a good deal of dedication and effort. Many of the participants in this under­taking are with us today on this platform. Others, like John Borbridge of the Tlingit Indians in Alaska, Earl Old Person of the Blackfeet, Bob Bennett, a former Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and the late Robert Jim of the Yakima Tribal Council, deserve a major share of the credit for the benefits this bank will bring to the Indian people.

I would like to also express my appreciation to General George Olmsted,

Chairman and President of the Washington based financial services International Bank for his continuing cooperation.

Of all the individuals who worked for the creation of the Indian bank, there is one man whose devotion and continuing selfless efforts made this ceremony possible. I am referring, of course, to Marvin Franklin. Without his patience and zeal I would not be surprised if the Indian bank was still an idea, a concept, or another promise.

On behalf of the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs I wish all of you good luck, and Godspeed.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the appointment of Karen R. Ducheneaux, enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, South Dakota, to be his Special Assistant. She will prepare Bureau position papers and help present the Bureau’s policies, goals, and objectives to the public.

"Miss Ducheneaux has wide experience in a variety of private Indian and Federal Indian organizations and in researching Indian problems connected with Government, both tribal and Federal," Commissioner Thompson said. "She has also had experience as a working journalist. I am pleased that she has accepted this opportunity to serve Indian people and the Federal Government."

Miss Ducheneaux was graduated from the University of South Dakota with a B.A. in government and minors in history and philosophy.

She comes to the Bureau from the American Indian Press Association, a Washington, D.C., news service organization.

Miss Ducheneaux helped establish the Institute for the Development of Indian Law, Washington, D.C., and worked for the organization as a writer, researcher, and administrative assistant.

She has done extensive work, both volunteer and as a staff legislative assistant, for the National Congress of American Indians, the oldest and largest national Indian organization.

Miss Ducheneaux has also been executive assistant to the National Council on Indian Opportunity, headed by the Vice President, and has been a research: assistant for the Labor and Public Welfare’s Special Subcommittee on Indian Education of the United States Senate.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs Morris Thompson today announced the appointment of Robert P. St. Arnold, 42, an enrolled member of the L’Anse Band of Chippewa Indians, to head the New York Liaison Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Syracuse, New York.

Although Indians on reservations in New York State are the responsibility of that State's government, the Indians' lands cannot be alienated and therefore BIA maintains a liaison office.

St. Arnold has already assumed the post.

"I am pleased we have a man of St. Arnold's proven ability to undertake the duties of the New York Liaison Office," Thompson said.

St. Arnold moved to New York from the job of Employment Assistance Officer of the Bureau in Cleveland, Ohio. He had been in Cleveland since May 1970. Prior to that time, he was Field Representative in the Great Lakes Agency of the Bureau with headquarters in Ashland, Wisc. He assumed that position in 1965.

He became business management advisor and property and supply assistant with the Seminole Agency, headquarters in Dania, Fla. in 1963 and has held a variety of jobs, including that of procurement assistant with the Washington, D.C. office of the Bureau. He began his Bureau career in 1954.

A graduate of Haskell Institute, now Haskell Indian Junior College, Lawrence, Kans., he served in the United States Army for two years beginning in September 1952.

He is married to the former Shirley Adams. They have three sons and one daughter.

WASHINGTON, D. c., Nov. 19 - The American Indian National Bank, the first institution of its kind, has opened for business at 1701 Pennsylvania Avenue, N. W. in the nation's capital.

At the opening ceremony in the bank's offices a block from the White House, Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton called the AINB "a symbol of the spirit, vision and self-determination of the Indian people." More important, he said, "it is a working symbol that will free American Indians from the isolation of an economic island, bring new prosperity and full opportunity for equal economic footing with the rest of the nation.”

James E. Smith, Comptroller of the Currency, officially presented the bank's charter to Barney Old Coyote, president of the Indian-owned and operated bank. The AINB, established as a national bank under Federal banking laws, is subject to normal regulatory requirements of the Comptroller of the Currency and fully accredited and insured by the FDIC.

American Indian National Bank - Add 1

The new bank is the keystone of an envisioned national Indian financial structure that will eventually encompass banking operations, venture capital, industrial capital and insurance services to Indians throughout the United States. It is the end result of several years of effort on the part of Indian leaders of many tribes and communities, interested agencies of the Federal government, and International Bank, a Washington-based financial services organization which developed the specific concept for the organization of the bank and will provide continuing consultant assistance.

The authorized capital stock of AINB is 500, 000 shares with a par value of $5. Only Indians may purchase stock in the bank. Tribes, organizations and individuals are being invited to buy shares. AINB will offer a full range of banking services, including checking accounts, savings accounts, and certificates of deposit for individuals, corporations, organizations and institutions, together with a wide variety of loans tailored to the needs of the borrower. In loan programs AINB will deal primarily, though not exclusively, with Indian tribes and groups.

W. W. Keeler, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and former board chairman of Phillips Petroleum Company, was elected first chairman of AINB. Barney Old Coyote, president, is a member of the Crow tribe and professor of economics at Montana State University.

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act has three basic components: Land, money, and an interrelated corporate structure Land, money, and an interrelated corporate structure of Native villages and regions.

Since Alaska Natives -- Indians, Eskimos and Aleuts --are a land-oriented people, the cession of 40 million acres of land to them under the Act is of great importance. One-twelfth of Alaska will be in their hands starting in early 1974.

The distribution of money contributed by the State of Alaska and the United States Government to Alaska Natives under the Act will also mean change. The total amount will be $962,500,000 and it will be called the Alaska Native Fund. About $130 million will go into their hands in December 1973.

The Federal portion of this fund will amount to $462,500,000 appropriated from the general fund of the U. S. Treasury. Already appropriated is $12,500,000 for the first fiscal year, $50,000,000 for the second, and $70,000,000 for the third.

To be distributed over the next 8 ¥ears will be: $70,000,000 during each of the fourth and fifth fiscal years; $40,000,000 during the sixth fiscal year and $30,000,000 during each of the next five fiscal years.

In addition, $500,000,000 will be credited to the fund as a result of state and Federal mineral leases on a revenue sharing basis. This money will come from 2 percent of the royalties, rentals, and bonuses from leases of land or sales of minerals under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 and certain other mineral leases of the State of Alaska.

A bonus for the Natives will be the $6 million interest accumulated on the amount already appropriated but not yet distributed because of the Bureau of Indian Affairs investment program.

A quarterly distribution of all money in the fund, except for attorneys' and consultants' fees, will be made to the Alaska Native Regional Corporations. The distribution will be based upon the ratio of Natives enrolled to the total enrollment in each region. Enrollment will be completed and signed by the Secretary of the Interior by December 18, 1973.

There are now 12 Alaska Native Regional Corporations. The Act stipulates that the State of Alaska be divided into 12 geographic regions, each region being composed of Native people with a common cultural heritage and common interests. Those who do not claim to be permanent residents of Alaska are being enrolled in one of the 12 regionals of Alaska with which they have personal or ancestral ties.

In addition, there will be village corporations. Villages must incorporate before they can become eligible for lands and other benefits under the Act, and villages on former reserves must incorporate and vote on whether to keep their reserves or receive more general benefits by December 18, 1973.

During the five years following enactment of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act the minimum distribution from the Alaska Native Fund is:

1. Not less than 10 percent of all funds received by the12 existing Regional Corporations. This must be distributed among all the stockholders.

2. Not less than 45 percent of all funds. This must be distributed among the village corporations and to the stock­holders who are not residents of these villages.

3. Following the 5 year period, not less than 50 percent of all funds will go to the village corporations and village non-resident stockholders.

The regional corporations, which have only interim boards of directors will receive 16 million acres of land of which they will own both the surface and subsurface and the subsurface rights on Native lands. They will begin to acquire this as soon as they identify their stockholders, issue shares to them and elect a board of directors. In addition they will receive 22 million acres of subsurface rights on Native lands.

Seventy percent of all revenues received from timber resources and the subsurface of the land must be divided annually among the 12 regional corporations according to the number of Natives enrolled in each region.

Marvin L. Franklin, Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, today made public his remarks to Mrs. Robert Jim on the passing of her husband Robert Jim, Chairman of the Yakima Indian Tribe, Washington, member of the National Council on Indian Opportunity, and the National Tribal Chairman’s Association.

In a wire to Mrs. Jim, Franklin said: “I cannot begin to express to you the sense of loss that all of us in the Indian community feel at the passing of Robert Jim. He gave up an Indian way of life to serve to the Yakima Tribe and the Indian people as a whole. He served them at the highest possible levels.

''He was given a mandate to lead his people when he became chairman of the Yakima Tribe. He also received a mandate from the President of the United States when he was named to the National Council on Indian Opportunity.

“Few Indian people have achieved one or the other of these honors. Only a handful have achieved both. He is solely missed.”

Jim died October 30 while attending the National Congress of American Indians convention in Tulsa, Okla.

He was born June 28, 1929 at Dry Creek, Wash., and spent his early years chasing wild horses for a living. He attended public schools in Toppenish, Washington. He was graduated from high school June 1948 and enlisted in the United States Air Force September 2, 1948. He served in France, Germany, and England and was discharged April 1954 as a staff sergeant.

In subsequent years he chased wild horses, hunted, and fished at Jackson Fishing Site, Celilo, Ore., until it was inundated in 1957.

He became treasurer of the National Congress of American Indians in 1961 and Commander of Chiefs, White Swan Post 191, American Legion, in 1962. That same year he was elected secretary of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians.

In 1964 he became chairman of the American Indian Civil Liberties Trust, a 21 year appointment. That same year he became a delegate for the United States Department of State to Quito, Ecuador, to participate in the North American Treaty Organization. In 1972 he was elected to the board of directors of the National Tribal Chairman's Association.

He was appointed to the National Council on Indian Opportunity by President Richard M. Nixon to serve until August 31, 1974. He had been chairman of the Yakima Tribal Council since 1967.

Jim spent many years working not only for his own Yakima people in order to have 21,000 acres of land including a part of Mount Adams returned to the tribe but for other Indian groups as well. He worked on provisions of the Alaska Native Land Claims Act which provides that about $962.5 million and 40 million acres of land will go to Indians, Eskimos, and Aleuts of Alaska. He also helped bring about the restoration of 48,000 acres of land that had been a part of Carson National Forest, N. Mex., to the Taos Pueblo.

October 2, 1973, he was elected to the board of the American Indian National Bank.